November 11: Today’s Wrestler Birthdays & Deaths

BIRTHDAYS

Billy Gunn is 55 today. After a stint as a professional bull rider in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, he left the profession in his early-20s in order to pursue a career as a professional wrestler. Primarily a tag team wrestler, Gunn is a total 11-time tag team champion in WWE with three different partners, Bart Gunn, Road Dogg, and Chuck Palumbo. He is also an Intercontinental Champion and a two-time Hardcore Champion, giving him 14 total championships in WWE. He is the 1999 King of the Ring winner. And if you’re not down with that, we’ve got two words for ya: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

WWE’s “Man of the Hour” Lio Rush turns 24 today. Before WWE, he was best known for his time in Ring of Honor where he was the winner of the 2016 Top Prospect Tournament, as well as his time in Combat Zone Wrestling, where he was the former CZW World Heavyweight Champion and a former two-time CZW Wired Champion. He signed with WWE in July 2017. On October 29, Rush joked on Twitter about Emma following her release from WWE; he received criticism from WWE wrestlers and issued an apology. The tweet resulted in Rush being pulled from all NXT events until November 30. Not long after, he debuted on 205 Live, and pulls double duty on that show and on Raw as Bobby Lashley’s manager. Happy birthday Lio.

DEATHS

Albert “Choo-Choo” Lynn was a staple of George Championship Wrestling in the 60s and early 70s. He got the nickname “Choo-Choo” because he actually was a railroad engineer. He was a two-time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion. He died on November 11, 2005 at age 79.

Cuba’s Pedro Godoy began wrestling for the CWF in 1949 at age 29. He made his way through most NWA territories in the US. With Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, he won the Florida version of the NWA Southern Heavyweight Title. With tag team partner Nelson Royal, eh won the NWA Central States Tag Team Championship, the Central States’ version of the NWA World Tag Team Championship, and the Amarillo, TX version of the International Tag Team Championship. He died on November 11, 1981 at age 61.